Quotes About Artistry

Every time I make a new record, some of my existing fans are going to like it, and some are not. It's inevitable, and it's part of the deal. It's part of the job description.

I think it's important to evolve and make a different record every time as an artist.

My next baby will be my new record.

It is one thing to record an album but it's a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.

After 'Mosaic,' I think a lot of people didn't know what my next record was going to be. And that's what I love. I just love doing music because I'm not going to follow the patterns and formulas of Music Row.

I love running away for a few months and creating a record.

I'm very hard on myself as an artist to begin with, so I personally don't even think I have the proper chops to sell a record, but people think differently.

With 'Elect the Dead,' I learned how to make a rock record without a rock band and make the rock record I've always wanted to make.

When we start to write for a new record, we never really know what we're doing. We don't come into the room with a set of ideas, but miraculously, a song comes out of it.

Money don't rule me, record companies don't rule me.

The record company doesn't know what to do with me, because I'm not a Lily Allen, but I'm not really an indie artist, either. All the best artists have been in the middle.

I started DJing, breakdancing and MCing in the '70s and I got my record deal in 1979 with 'Christmas Rap.'

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible.

Even before I got the record deal, I never really used singing to get girls. I always felt weird about that.

Red House Painters were doing cover songs before our first record deal. I remember live shows where we did an AC/DC song; I think we did 'Send In The Clowns' by Judy Collins. We did 'The Star Spangled Banner,' which came out on our third record.

I always said, if I got a record deal, I'd want to record the best songs I could, whether I wrote them or not.

You can be more creative when you're not feeling like a slave. When you're on a record label, they have you like that.

I'm not ruling out music forever. I'd love to do that, but if I ever did, I don't think it would be with a record label or anything like that. It might even look like me finding a band and kind of playing in bars.

I want to have a publishing company and a record label, and I want to manage five artists... eventually.

I've dealt with a record label in the past.

Unless you've given up your business to a record label, there's no such thing as just being a musician anymore.

I'm never happy with anything I've done! If you sat me down and played everything I've ever recorded, I'd just sit there going, 'No... that could be better.'

One of the most fun parts about my job is that when the music gets recorded live at the end of the project and real musicians play it, I still get goosebumps every single time.